In his rage and grief, James requests to be reassigned to the New York outbreak, and runs a series of high-risk missions in the hope of being reunited with his wife and daughter in death. Heller thinks he's finally gotten his wish during a mission into the virus-ravaged Red Zone, which leaves his entire unit dead and Heller fighting through hundreds of infected; but unfortunately for him, someone has other plans. Impressed by his resolve, the supposed creator of this new outbreak infects Heller with his own strain of the Blacklight Virus, granting the Sergeant similar near-indestructibility and inhuman powers. Now Heller seeks to use his new-found abilities to destroy the man who made him what he is, the man he holds personally responsible for all his misery: Alex Mercer.

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While the game is notable for introducing the new player character of Heller and setting up previous series Anti-Hero Alex Mercer as the main antagonist, it also includes improved area designs and interactivity, increased NPC reactions and animations, a larger arsenal of weapons to take off fallen enemies, and an even bigger pool of abilities.

On June 28, 2012, Activision announced major layoffs at Radical Entertainment, citing that the Prototype IP "did not find a broad commercial audience"; casting doubt on the possibility of the franchise continuing.

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This game provides examples of:

Aborted Arc: The foreshadowing from the original game that implies a confrontation between Alex Mercer and PARIAH has no payoff, as PARIAH is completely irrelevant to the plot of the sequel, and is never mentioned outside of a single Freeze-Frame Bonus on a Blackwatch document.

Acrofatic: Despite being built like sumo wrestlers and walking at a kind of slow waddle, Juggernauts can leap thirty feet with ease.

Because of their regular placement and the fact that they occur within-engine, they tend to act similarly to your other Special Attacks, the only difference being, of course, context-sensitivity or lack thereof. Quick-time events and similar don't have that quality, though.

Actually Pretty Funny: Heller admits that the Bio-Bomb ability is badass when he first sees it in action.

Adult Fear: The opening shows, in flashes, Heller returning from his tour to discover the mutilated corpse of his wife, and unable to find his child in his home (assumed taken and devoured by the infected). Just to twist the knife a little further, phone conversations between James and Colette are played over the scene, which are mostly Heller reassuring his wife that everything will be fine, Blackwatch will take care of it, he'll be home soon and then they can go somewhere safe...

One of the Blackbox pick-ups records a mother pleading with a Blackwatch soldier that her son is autistic, not infected. It does not end well.

Super Soldiers are stunned by blocking as they strike, after which you can power bomb them. Even against several at once, this fact makes them trivially easy to kill.

Evolved will always fall for the Block/Hammerfist Spike combo, since the latter part has a wide area of effect that can hit them even after they recover. Using the Tendrils combo attack will also force them into their power attack, which stuns them if you dodge, allowing you to grab and toss them. This is even faster and has some nice throwing moves depending on the power used.

All Webbed Up: The Tendrils power, if used on certain enemies, can tie them up in biomass tendrils for free hits until they break free. This is especially useful on Juggernauts, which block almost everything otherwise.

Anti-Frustration Features: Most humans die in one hit from any of Heller's powers, but people you might want to consume have this amazing ability to survive with a tiny sliver of health left, which reduces them to only being able to crawl on the ground where they're much less likely to get hit. Unfortunately this doesn't apply to randomly spawning Brawlers which you need to consume to upgrade your powers, making it possible that a stray missile kills them off and nullifies the last 5 minutes of random wandering to make one to spawn.

Also with Radnet, which lets you still have all what you accomplished even if you start another game and you only need to get the Bronze level to get the upgrade.

The game now allows you to jump into the air, target an enemy, and press grab to auto fly and pick up the target. This makes instantly grabbing necessary targets ungodly easy, removing the problem in the last game of having to run back and grab them again (hoping they didn't get hit).

Anti-Hero: Heller. At one point, Roland, one of the GENTEK scientists and an Evolved working for Mercer mocks Heller for thinking he's a hero who is willing to kill thousands to get at him. Heller's response is "Did I say I was a fucking hero, you piece of shit?!" That said, Heller is still heroic in his own way; many of the missions he takes on involve stopping Blackwatch and GENTEK's sadistic experiments involving innocents, or at least ripping those responsible into tiny pieces.

Appendage Assimilation: Done in a more obvious fashion than the original game. The game will prompt you to defeat and consume a new type of enemy to gain the power that it wields against you.

Army of Thieves and Whores: In one conversation between Blackwatch members, it is implied that the organization recruits from people who may be facing prison time, as one member remarks that had he not joined he would be either "in prison or dead".

Artificial Atmospheric Actions: Conversing NPCs generally have one of them repeat a piece of dialogue associated with their voice and the other reply with a random comment. Gets funny when they end up being mismatched: this is probably the most apparent with a marine and a scientist, the former of which keeps talking how he signed up to help people, wants to go on a extended vacation and doesn't understand anything anymore, while the scientist replies to everything he says like he was talking about science problems.

Artificial Brilliance: Improves upon the Apathetic Citizens syndrome of the original game with more believable civilian reactions to your current disguise for instance. Also, military AI will now take notice of a handful more suspicious movements compared to the original by actually filling the alert meter. However, it turns out that there are still cases of...

Artificial Stupidity: You can still evade military pursuit by simply changing to an uncompromised disguise unseen, even if it's a dead end, and your assailants pretty much wonder where the hell you went. Or being relatively unnoticed for gliding around in a military base in a scientist HazMat suit for that matter. Nor do they seem to wonder why the random soldier is running around carrying a helicopter rocket pod or TOW launcher that would presumably be several times his weight. The one time this is remarked on during an escort mission, Heller states he just eats a lot of protein, which is kinda true. This is a bit averted when you play Insane Difficulty, as pretty much anything you do will fill your wanted meter extremely fast.

Perhaps the most stupid AI feature is that your average Marine or Blackwatch soldier is only mildly suspicious when a colleague enters a military base by casually jumping 80 feet off a building and ploughing into concrete right next to them unharmed. Blackwatch has super soldiers, but you're not dressed as one, so any sane soldier should be yelling and shooting when seeing Heller behave like this.

Art Shift: many cut scenes, including the opening, once again use stylized real-life photos instead of the in-game engine.

Ascended Meme: The flying kick from Penny Arcade is mentioned no less than three times, once in the opening when Alex kicks a chopper in the same fashion as in the comic, the second being one of Heller's new finishers which is compared to it, and the third for doing the standard one, which gets you the "arcade action" trophy.

Also during your fight with Alex, he will toss a Helicopter towards you and say "Karate Kick this!" Sadly, you cannot oblige, just jump out of the way.

Asshole Victim: Just about everyone Heller targets turns out to be, at the very minimum, a colossal prick.

In one mission, Heller finds his targets so disgusting he actually refuses to eat them and instead takes them up to the highest point possible in the map in a helicopter, sheds his disguise just so they know how screwed they are, and then bails out and leaves them to die. In case you are curious, the scientists planned to sterilize poor people and minorities.

Some of his targets seem to be misled by Blackwatch, horribly afraid of Heller, and/or unable to get out of the organization/city. At one point, scientists are used as bait for Heller and the horror the head researcher displays is disturbing. On a more humorous note, some soldiers will beg you to let them live if you pick them up. Some will say things like, "We know what Mercer did to you! Let us help you!" or "We're the good guys!" It can make you feel guilty... except if you do decide to spare them. The second you put them down, they suicidally start raising the alert again and open fire if they have weapons. You can have a humorous cycle where you pick a guy up, he begs, you put him down, he starts calling for help, prepares to shoot you, you pick him up again, and he begs for mercy again.

The Assimilator: A major part of Heller's quest to get to the bottom of Blackwatch's and Gentek's "science fair project", and subsequently Mercer's covert meddling. Knowing the truth for taking action is Heller's aim, and gaining those wicked powers (and mutations, evolutions, etc.) is also a pretty handy bonus.

Attack Backfire: If you get hit by a certain type of enemy, you can reverse the knockback in mid-air and slam back into them with an attack.

Attack Reflector: The Shield power. Taken Up to Eleven with the ability to deflect explosive ordnance accurately back to the shooter, or whatever else you may be aiming at.

Audible Gleam: The cutscene where Heller stops his claws short of striking Rooks in the mobile command post.

Audible Sharpness: When the Evolved brandish their melee appendages and pose for the camera.

Aura Vision: The Viral Sonar (as Heller puts it) reveals who is being watched and who is not. If you lock onto a target, it will also identify exactly who can see them, if applicable.

Backstab: Heller's ability to stealth-consume targets is decidedly better than his predecessor's — he can stealth-consume from the front as long as nobody in the room happens to be looking at the target.

Badass Boast: A staple of Heller whenever an NPC advises him over the radio to be careful on his current undertaking.

Badass Normal: Mercer decides to transform Heller mainly because the Sergeant fought his way to the center of the Red Zone alone. To put that further into perspective: the average military squad can barely to manage more than a single Hunter. Heller was able to kill one with only a combat knife. That takes some serious skills.

Alex Mercer, often threatening his Evolved with death if they fail their missions (though they're not a normal organisation and often failure would result in death anyway) and even more apparent when consumes his Evolved without hesitation just so he would be stronger to fight Heller. Being what he is, though, he has an unusual approach to life and death - he may have seen that last act as a non-traditional "team" tactic.

Colonel Rooks as well. Multiple audio logs will have him berating or threatening a Blackwatch soldier just because they helped an innocent civilian survive an attack from an infected monster. Someone also has to be authorizing the attacks in the YZ, and he's in charge.

Bare-Fisted Monk: From the original D-code project to the Orion variant, Super Soldiers are still made primarily to be melee combatants with little equal.

Battle in the Rain: The final fight with Alex Mercer, on top of a particularly large roof.

Beeping Computers: The PDA in Heller's possession makes sure to give audible cues when its GUI is doing something. The computer in Father Guerra's hideout behaves similarly.

Later on, whenever Heller is made aware of how his daughter is threatened.

Big Applesauce: Now as the Red Zone. Times Square, or Manhattan in general, never seems to catch a break from all sorts of fictional abuse. The Yellow and Green zones seem to be an amalgamation of Brooklyn, Queens and Jersey City. There are various landmarks from the aforementioned locations scattered throughout the islands, including faithful depictions of the Brooklyn, Queensborough and Williamsburg bridges (although in completely imaginary locations). Strangely enough, Downtown Manhattan is more or less geographically accurate even if it isn't to scale.

Black and Grey Morality: You're basically a rolling ball of blades that eats people. On the other hand, you're a lot better as a person than most of the people you eat.

Interestingly, the trope is not invoked to as great an extent as the last game. Once the Blackwatch, while vicious and completely without mercy in their campaign to destroy the virus, had shades of The Extremist Was Right. Pretty much all their screen-time here involves punting dogsjust because. The leader of the Infected, Alex Mercer, in contrast to Greene, is smug, cruel, and megalomaniacal rather than simply insane. The protagonist, on the other hand, has sympathetic motives. It's still hardly Black and White Morality, but it's closer to it than the first game.

Black Helicopter: No surprise, Blackwatch still runs heavily armed operations as with the first game. Now more custom-looking compared to the original game's resemblance to real-life hardware.

Blade Below the Shoulder: The original three bladed weapons from the first game return, with new designs. Blackwatch mooks also have a variation of this, though they're never seen using it since getting into melee for them would be Too Dumb to Live.

Blatant Lies: Pretty much anything heard on the PA system scattered throughout the Yellow and Green zones, usually to the tune of how awesome, noble, and trustworthy Gentek is.

Blood Knight: Blackwatch is full of them. One even admits to Koenig that the main reason he joined Blackwatch was to shoot people, and was disappointed he was instead shooting mutated populace.

Body Horror: The grotesque-looking "Evolved Infected" from the first game, based on Alex's strain, are now the regular zombies.

Try using the Viral Grenade Launcher or the Viral Barrels near anyone who's not infected. They'll vomit blood, fall to the ground, then violently spasm while their flesh breaks apart and leaves behind a shambling monstrosity,

The fate of anyone with the bio-bomb on them. They stand still, scream due to the intense shooting pain, then tentacles fires out, grab objects, and violently pull them back at the target which smashes them into a bloody mess. Anything from other people to concrete and tank parts. If it were real you'd have to imagine the thoughts going through the victims head. May double as a Fate Worse than Death since you kill your comrades as well.

Bond One-Liner: Heller has a veritable library of these, though he doesn't use them very often.

And computer-dumb too, apparently. In a humorous bit in the first stealth-consume mission, Heller has to use a computer while in the form of a scientist he's consumed, and apparently he has yet to learn how to actually use the brain of the guy he devoured.

Heller: I'm at the computer, what do I press? Guerra: First you need to— Heller: I'm pressing the red button. Shit. Now the screen's all fucked up. Guerra: Okay, press the alternate key. "A.L.T." Alternate— Heller: Alt? There's no fucking alt. I got a fucking squiggly line key, I got a fucking key with a triangle on it... what the fuck kind of keyboard is this anyway? ** And when Heller is done:

Borrowed Biometric Bypass: Like in the first game, if you need to get into a base, you just have to find the commander and chow down to gain his credentials. This game is a lot more lenient in this respect, since you can get away with using a normal Blackwatch or even hazmat-suited scientist disguise for almost every mission, unless you're specifically prompted to consume a target.

For the final boss, both characters get in on the banter, of taunting, humiliation, and just flat-out comedy. You might not even mind failing, just to hear it all.

Boss in Mook Clothing: The Evolved. They look like any Blackwatch, Gentek scientist, Infected or non-infected civilian. Until they counter your grabbing attempts and brandish their weaponized appendages. They also take a good deal of punishment and dish out comparably.

Bottomless Magazines: Weapons are still reload-free as per the first game. Though the Weaponize ability from the Incredible Hulk: UD game takes quite a liberty with the weapons in question, such as a minigun with a Hammerspace "magazine", or a TOW launcher that starts with a basic capacity of twelve.

Brain Food: In addition to information, it's good for Heller's health! Literally!

Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: As a human, Heller tried to kill Alex Mercer with nothing more than a knife. Mercer was more amused than anything else, and infected Heller with his own strain of Blacklight.

Rottweiler: James Heller. My name is Rottweiler. Me and my crew over here were just wondering what kind of fuck your old lady was. Bet she liked it real hard and dirty, right? Woo! But, you know, from a real man, not some AWOL traitor and his pasty hacker cunt. Later, traitor.

But Thou Must!: Radical said they were trying to give Heller more initiative compared to Mercer, who mostly just received missions from NPCs. Heller, by contrast, gets NPCs to help him by...force of personality, and otherwise has a lot more initiative than Mercer. It feels more like the NPCs are actually helping him instead of just being quest-dispensers.

Call-Back: Project New Templar. Its goal to sterilize certain ethnic groups based on their genes is basically Project Blacklight, part 2. Appropriately enough, someone infected with the original Blacklight kills those involved.

Cannibalism Superpower: See the Appendage Assimilation entry. Also subverted in some cases because despite that you can now consume familiar enemies that the previous game did not allow you to, does not mean you can take on their appearance.

Car Fu: It's a Prototype game, which was conceptually an Incredible Hulk game, after all.

Heller's squad patrolling inside the Red Zone via APC gets Car Fu'd right as his squad members are discussing their deployment.

During chase scenes with Evolved, be aware that they will do this to slow you down.

Several times, the nearest high-damage ranged weapon will be either a car, or a hapless civilian or soldier that can be grabbed and lobbed at a target - extra damage if you infect them with a bio-bomb first.

Catch and Return: You can now use the shield power to block missiles in midair and send them hurtling back at the launcher.

One promotional trailer invokes this trope by demonstrating what was already possible in the original game: Catching debris thrown by a Hydra and hurling it back.

Chekhov's Gun: Rooks' line when asked by Riley/Heller about Maya's location. Not exact, but: "I'd sit her down in a corner, give her a lolipop, and wait for Heller to come to me." The hidden meaning? He isn't saying it with threatening intent. He has a wife and daughter of his own, and it's Heller's drive to save Maya that actually prompts Rooks to help him.

Precision F-Strike: An interesting variant in a game that's full of Cluster F-Bomb. A mission objective specifically use the expletive in its instruction, the only mission objective to do so in the game.

Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Manhattan is split into Green, Yellow and Red Zones. The Green Zone is full of heavy military presence and normal civilians going about their lives, the "safe zone." Yellow is Quarantine: nobody in or out without permission. It's densely populated and living conditions are very poor. Residents unlucky enough to be stuck here are justifiably miserable, and are frequently used as "test subjects" (read: food for captured Infected) by GENTEK. The Red Zone is the one place they haven't cleaned out yet of infection, and it's full of dangerous mutants and so on. A Blackwatch narrator in a "briefing" video described it as a "living hell".

Similarly, Blackwatch troops all have goggles and other equipment on them that glow blue, while infected enemies have veins and vital spots that glow red. The goggles of the Evolved Blackwatch troopers even change from blue to orange when they transform.

Combat Pragmatist: Rip weapons off armed vehicles, throw cars, hijack vehicles, throw people, do a Tendril Blackhole on something in the middle of a debris heap, claw pounce on that annoyingly retreating target, spamming Area of Effect attacks on either a single or multiple targets... whatever you need to do to get the job done.

To the point where the developers realize that giving an EP bonus for completing a task in a specific manner would help to encourage less monotony as players got too comfortable using a single move incessantly.

Combat Tendrils: Now with more emphasis on the term "tendrils". The Whip Fist power and all of its grappling capabilites also make it as much a combat tentacle as the Tendril power are... well, combat tendrils.

Comically Small Bribe: When the New Templar scientists learn they're in a chopper piloted by James Heller and they just pissed him off, they offer him a bribe of a hundred dollars, as if Heller needs money any more, before going all the way up to "ten thousand — each!"

Continuity Nod: Mercer can do his trademark Body Surf from the first game on you if you don't dodge his pounce.

You can do it too, if you do a charged attack from the air without any powers equipped and hold down the attack button. Hilarity Ensues when you're coming out of a glide and use a Blackwatch trooper as a squishy landing pad and his buddies actually pause a moment before raising the alarm, as if they're wondering if you really just did that.

Counter Attack: Successfully dodging the aggressive blows by Evolved on button prompt allows a subsequent action command for you to school them hard as they try to get their appendages unstuck.

The Evolved have a Counter Attack of their own if you try to attack them immediately after knocking them back, which presumably exists precisely to stop you from stunlocking them with repeated claw-pounces.

Country Matters: At one point, Dana Mercer is referred to as "a pasty hacker cunt." Yep, in dialogue and everything. Hilariously mocked when she grouches that she's not "pasty".

Cover-Blowing Superpower: Enforced during two sequences where you pretend to be a Blackwatch soldier for most of the mission. The game degrades you to bog-standard human, save for the ability to pick up already-detached armaments from military vehicles (TOW launchers and the like). The latter is commented upon, but Heller will just pass it off as the result of eating a lot of protein. You get your powers back once the sequence ends.

Blackwatch Soldier: (referring to the TOW) Shit, dude.

Crapsack World: Pretty much everything in the game is oriented towards showing you how incredibly awful Blackwatch is. For example, the Blackboxes pretty much all center around soldiers committing atrocities.

Crippling Overspecialization: Subverted. The individual soldier is only capable of handling what his shouldered weapon is designed for. However, they appear often in squads, which usually have a mixed of light and heavy arms.

Critical Annoyance: You know that sound that tells you that you are about a couple of bullet hits away from losing the helicopter that you are in.

Crucified Hero Shot: The bed Heller is strapped to after being infected has a pair of smaller tables that hold his arms out to the side.

Damn You, Muscle Memory!: The controls for glide and air dash have been swapped around from what they were in the first game. The charge-jumping present in the previous game and The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destructionnote For the PS2 version of Hulk which uses the same basic PS controller has also been swapped for the far more common variety where holding jump causes Heller to keep ascending until he hits the apex or you release the button. Dodging is also now performed by quickly tapping the jump button and stealth consuming is done by default by just grabbing someone while undetected, which has an unfortunate side effect of blowing your cover both by accidentally pressing one of the shoulder buttons required to stealth consume in the previous game via having Heller ditch his disguise and raise his shields, as well as trying to grab someone too close to a throwable object which causes him to lift it up instead.

You can solve the problem with a target being too close to a throwable object by L2 targeting the target. However, if a person or object that is the objective is on screen, then it will target that instead so you have to position the camera so the those targets aren't on screen. Also, you have five basic abilities and only two buttons to use them with (triangle and square on PS3). You can reassign the controls by pressing L1. However, you can easily change the controls by mistake or forget where you put what ability.

PC controls aren't spared either. As stated above, the original Prototype used a Sprint/Air-dash and a Jump/Glide setup. The sequel swaps it to Sprint/Glide and Jump/Air-dash configuration, regardless of whichever key is bounded to either pair. PC veterans of the first game are likely to experience skyrocketed frustration levels as they attempt events like Incineration and Recovery without being re-accustomed to the swap.

Darker and Edgier: The dialogue in this game is much more melodramatic and foulmouthed than the previous game.

During the climactic fight with Mercer, having this happen is a good sign you're using the wrong power to fight the one he's got equipped currently.

Death Seeker: Heller was trying to get himself killed when he fought his way into the Red Zone.

Deliberately Monochrome: Most of the cutscenes are entirely in black and white with a splash of primary color (such as red blood, blue back-lit screens, yellow flames) here and there. Think Sin City, but with an even more limited palette, which is also used when Heller is low on health. Viral powers are always highlighted when in use.

Determinator: Heller being the prime example among the other characters.

Developers' Foresight: Anything knocked into the water is considered destroyed. If you do with the Whitelight barrels in the mission where you're supposed to throw them into the incinerator, Heller will have some humorous responses.

"Yeah! Fuck you, Mother Nature!"

Devour the Dragon: Alex does this to increase his strength against the final fight. It doesn't stop Heller from killing him.

Disconnected Side Area: The Green and Red Zones don't become accessible until after your first visits there via story progression.

The PC version, Steam or otherwise, comes with the DLCs Colossal Mayhem and Excessive Force already included in the game files. Since Radical's closure in terms of development capability, there appears not to be any indication that those two packs will officially made available. Doesn't stop a simple addition of perhaps a few lines of code into an existing game file that tells the game to recognize another external file that essentially enables the DLC content for PC users as it were for the console users. The files to be put into the game's main folder can be found here.

After his infection, Heller is captured by GENTEK. During the cutscene, a character speaks part of the Lord's Prayer while Heller is strapped to a very crucifix-looking examination table.

Do Not Go Gentle: Heller may have been a Death Seeker, but he was still aiming to kill as many infected as humanly possible. When armed with nothing but a combat knife, he goes after Mercer (who's leading him on), stabs a Hunter to death, and when being choked by Mercer's whip-fist his immediate response is to stab the hell out of Mercer's arm repeatedly.

Not to mention that he was a solid badass even before being infected. If you pay close attention to the intro cinematic - it's difficult, between gray letters on a white background and the brief time it's onscreen this is very easy to miss - but Heller had been awarded a Purple Heart and a Silver Star while in Iraq. Then he proceeds to cut Alex Mercer's throat and actually last more than a few seconds in hand-to-hand combat with a Humanoid Abomination that had moments before tossed the remains of his APC to one side like it was a toy chair. It only gets more awesome from there.

Doom Troops: Blackwatch troops now look like this. Before, they merely resembled regular soldiers wearing black SWAT uniforms and night-vision goggles. Now they're kitted out with creepy glowing blue goggles, hoods over their heads, and a large, wide shield/blade on their left arms. Regular military personnel in olive kit and tan camouflage fatigues also appear, in direct contrast.

The Dreaded: Mercer, to little surprise. Best shown when he shows up in the Red Zone early on; Heller's superiors go Oh, Crap! and order him not to pursue or engage Mercer.

Drop the Hammer: Monsters like Juggernauts and Goliaths slam the ground with their heavy limbs. Also, Heller can Drop the Hammer by diving from heights with Hammerfists out.

Heller commenting on a Juggernaut with Hammerfist DNA: This guy's a walking earthquake.

Dump Stat: Each time you level up, you get a choice between Movement, Health, Regeneration, Shapeshifting, Mass, and Finishers. Shapeshifting is the most useless of these, only serving to decrease your suspicion meter faster and make it build more slowly. The AI is already dumb enough that you can literally fly into a base on Insane difficulty and they'll shrug it off, so making them even stupider has no meaningful effect on gameplay. The rest actually let you survive longer or improve your Devastator/Pack Leader ability, which are vital/useful.

11th-Hour Superpower: Well, at least noticeably more super than what he's demonstrated so far: in the second to last mission, Heller consumes a supercharged Juggernaut, which temporarily gives him the ability to control them, makes him glow and allows him to kill even supersoldiers in one hit.

Elite Mooks: The Brawlers for the Infected, the Orions for Blackwatch, and eventually the Evolved.

Empathy Doll Shot: A pink stuffed rabbit that Amaya Heller carried with her everywhere. James Heller finds it in his daughter's bedroom spattered with blood.

Enemy Chatter: A lot of Blackwatch's plans and intentions are made known to Heller as he can hear radio chatter.

Enemy-Detecting Radar: Only enemies appear on the minimap, while neutral characters like civilians are radar-invisible.

Enemy Mine: Briefly between Heller and Blackwatch while Heller disposes the Whitelight containers.

Enemy Rising Behind: After shoving Heller into debris for trying to slice his throat, Alex shakes his head at the slumped over Heller and proceeds to walk away. Cue Heller getting up behind and charging at Mercer again. Man is persistent.

Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Unexpectedly, Colonel Rooks. After hearing Rooks' end of a conversation by phone with his spouse and daughter (mirroring Heller's "When are you coming home?" conversation from the prologue), he stops within inches of killing Rooks. It turns out to be a wise move: Rooks not only retrieves Maya after Heller thinks he's lost her, but he kills two of his own men (as detailed below) in the process of handing her over.

Evil Is Easy: Much like Prototype, it is a lot more convenient to chow down on defenseless civilians than it is to go after armed soldiers and zombies (which are rarer in the Green Zone). Also like Prototype, it's only easy to begin with. By the mid-game, it's inefficient or downright pointless based on your healing powers and the greater number of more fulfilling targets.

Finishing Move: The finishers. Instantly put a vehicle out of commission no matter its health status.

Five Rounds Rapid: Blackwatch infantry will continue to pour rifle fire into the protagonist until they die or lose sight of him, no matter how ineffective it is. They do this even when he becomes outright Immune to Bullets late in the game.

Flanderization: While Blackwatch was already evil in the first game, they at least came off as Necessarily Evil and efficient above all else. They are more casually sociopathic and blatantly villainous in this game, without the efficiency.

Flunky Boss: A few instances. One particular mini-boss has the Pack Leader ability to use against you. Once you defeat and consume that boss, you gain that ability for yourself, so that you can be a Flunky Boss protagonist too.

Foe-Tossing Charge: Once again, with a large object in your hands as you rush down a crowded alley.

Foreshadowing: The game's promotional taglines, one of which is "Murder Your Maker".

A throwaway line in the opening cutscene may at first seem like a Call-Back to the climax of the first game, but could easily be foreshadowing Project Firehawk.

Soldier 2: Shit, you wanna leave a patrol mission up to those fuckin' baby-killers? They'd just as soon blow this city to kingdom come.

Friendly Fire Proof: Those instances where you have to play along in a military disguise, like one escort mission. If you do shoot one of them they are surprisingly Made of Iron and yell at you to learn to aim.

Though this is due to the fact that if you notice, the game starts off as if you have not completed the last mission. This clearly seen that there are still infected running around, despite the fact a Cutscene Power to the Max showed him eliminating all of them.

As in the previous game, Heller can remember every disguise he's gained and switch to them at will. You cannot do this, and Heller's own use of this ability actually replaces whatever your previous disguise was.

In the mission where Heller gains the Bio Bomb, Heller will disguise himself as a Marine even if no Marines were ever consumed.

Gas Mask Mooks: Most Blackwatch soldiers are of this variant. The scientists in hazardous materials suits aren't really capable of hostile action towards you, but are otherwise donning their equivalent of gas masks. Unlike the first game, the masks actually work, too, at least in the one mission that fact is relevant in.

Gatling Good: The vulcan cannon mounted on the sides of the tanks is almost as effective at tearing up targets as its main cannon. Heller can also hip-fire them if he removes them from the tank.

Gender-Blender Name: One BlackNet target goes by the name Marcella Walsh, which confuses Heller initially. He's a guy.

Heller: Marcella Walsh. Marcella? Not even sure if that's a guy or a chick.

Government Conspiracy: Suggested. A lategame cutscene has an agent from some government agency say that the plan to vivisect Maya Heller gets approval from Washington. Where exactly is unknown; however, Blackwatch was said in the first game to be so high up you had to look down to see the POTUS. The fact that Rooks with all his authority considers tangling with them unwise says that the rabbit hole goes really far down.

Graceful Loser: Alex Mercer takes having his arms ripped off multiple times and his impending consumption with a subdued, "Huh. Welcome to the top of the food chain."

Grievous Harm with a Body: Up to Eleven where you can first infect that person with a biobomb then throw him at another person and destroy everything around them. Also, one of the finishers for Brawlers involves ripping off their arm and beating them to death with it.

The Guards Must Be Crazy: Just like the first game, you can still glide over soldiers and run up walls without getting an instant alert.

Guide Dang It!: Averted, for the most part. Field Ops and Lairs can be spotted on the minimap from a fair distance, and Blackboxes will alert you when you move within ~150 feet of them. Blacknet targets can be tracked using Heller's viral sense if you don't run into them on the street. The game also benefits from area division, meaning each zone is smaller and thus easier to search. Played straight with consumable targets for upgrades, which are totally random and far more likely to appear inside lairs or during missions. Though the skill upgrades appear in military bases, the Brawlers which give out power upgrades are everywhere and far less likely to spawn as a valid target.

Half the Man He Used to Be: Using Claws / Blade / Whipfist on any enemy will result in this. The Flesh Cleaver bonus reward also does this automatically human enemies.

Hand Wave: One particular memory of a Gentek scientist and his colleague discussing the diet of infected, which are carnivorous despite infected creatures being based off omnivorous humans:

Dr. Ben Langham: ...How? What does the virus do that changes such a basic attribute?

Other Scientist: You might be over thinking this a bit.

The game doesn't even try to justify why the Hunting ability can't track plot-relevant characters like Rooks and Maya. Heller just says he has no idea how it works and it's never mentioned again.

Harder Than Hard: Insane Difficulty and somewhat subverted. Both Prototype games have this game mode but the first game is significantly harder on insanity while the second has little difference between insanity and easy mode.

He's Back: One of the first missions involves shredding your way through a Blackwatch operation to restore Father Guerra's fighting spirit.

He Who Fights Monsters: Alex Mercer, as his sister Dana makes clear, during the video sequence that plays after Heller consumes him.

Healing Factor: Like the first game, but even better with upgrades. Fully upgraded, Heller can heal to full health instantly outside combat, and do the same much slower during combat. By mid-game, you probably won't even need to chow on the military to recover after a mission.

Further accelerated if the Radnet mutation, Security Blanket, is active along with shields up.

Hellish Copter: Yes, not even being in an armed, airborne machine will save you from Heller.

Especially notable are the choppers involved in the Cargo Delivery Blacknet missions. Every single time, they crash, scattering boxes everywhere. And normally, no outside forces are involved. Hell, Heller usually shows up with the intent of crashing it, only to see them already spinning out of control.

Hoist by His Own Petard: GENTEK scientists being killed by the products of the very virus they're studying. As Heller puts it during one such assault, "Let's see how you like being trapped in a cage with a monster!"

Any time you deflect a rocket back at the source.

One mini-boss can show you the receiving end of the Tendril Blackhole.

If you're not careful with fighting the Evolved, they can Bio-Bomb you. This isn't fatal as it for humans, but it still hurts like hell, knocking out 1/5th - 1/3rd of your HP, depending on upgrades.

Alex Mercer meant for Heller to be part of his master plan. He was eaten for his troubles.

Hopeless War: As you uncover more of the story, you realize that it would have been this if not for your meddling.

Hostile Terraforming: In the Red Zone, massive viral growths weave between buildings. One mission has the target you're escorting comment that they're releasing spores to spread, and within a year NYZ will look like another planet.

Human Cannonball: The graphic for the Dashing mutation shows Heller being shot out of a cannon.

Humans Are Bastards: As revealed in the comic tie-ins, Alex lost faith in humanity after the initial outbreak and traveled the world hoping to find reasons to believe in humans, only to become so disgusted by the selfishness and greed of mankind that he decided to remake the world with the Blacklight virus.

I'm a Humanitarian: Sort of, like Mercer. Applies mostly to Mercer and the Evolved rather than humanity, actually.

Immune to Bullets: Aside from the really low damage each bullet causes, you can get a mutation which literally makes small-arms fire bounce off. Scratch Damage applies for everything else which should be immune.

The most egregious example may be the fact that a ripped off TOW-launcher supposedly has a manual trigger for Heller to use. Besides the ridiculousMacross Missile Massacre-style rockets it fires.

This is even lampshaded at one point of the game. When you are on a under covered mission as a Blackwatch Soldier and pick up a TOW-launcher, he would be shocked that you can even pick it up. Heller just replies he eats a lot of protein.

"Instant Death" Radius: Devastator attacks are really devastating to your immediate surroundings. Unfortunately, you only get the one and its range isn't as good as the one Alex had.

Instant Expert: In addition to Heller's Marine skills, he can further improve his weapon abilities by acquiring the relevant Brain Food.

Actually averted at one point. Despite Heller just having consumed a scientist, he could not operate the man's computer without help.

Interface Screw: Targeting is better than it was in the first game, but still has its shortcomings. It focuses on the closest hostile in front of you, meaning you have to turn and face what you want to kill. Things that are above you are a particular pain, and picking a target out of a large crowd is still annoying.

Interface Spoiler: The Power Selection Menu shows the number of powers available in the game.

And the mutations subscreen show you what powers those are.

"A heart a day keeps Alex Mercer away." That means if you thought he was on your side early in the game...

Jerk Ass: The audio logs from Blackboxes reveal many a dick, usually Blackwatch goons mistreating people in general.

There's a total of one Blackbox that isn't of a Blackwatch trooper or a Gentek scientist kicking a puppy or feeding it to a Brawler. It's of a trooper being chewed out by Rooks for stopping an attempted rape. It seems like there might be at least one decent guy in Blackwatch, but then you remember that you got this recording off the guy's corpse.

Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Blackwatch in the first game, under Randall, was at least attempting to contain the infection, if in a brutal, violent, and ruthless manner. By this timeframe, they've reached the point where they're deliberately kidnapping civilians just so GENTEK scientists can run "experiments" on them involving throwing Infected beasts at them and watching them get shredded. Dialogue from the Blackboxes also further underscores Blackwatch's expanding psychopathy, including a recording of a Blackwatch soldier shooting an autistic boy because he wouldn't speak, another Blackwatch soldier shooting a woman immediately after warning her he was authorized to use lethal force if she didn't step back, an officer threatening to discharge another Blackwatch trooper for saving a woman from being raped, a recording from Colonel Rooks explicitly stating that it isn't their responsibility to police the refugees even when they start killing each other, and an officer berating a subordinate for shooting an entire family because he was wasting ammo.

Alex Mercer was always an Anti-Hero with emphasis on "anti", but in this game, he's full-on megalomaniacal villain.

Karma Houdini: Rooks. He's the commanding officer of Blackwatch, who engage in dog-kicking left and right throughout the game, and who can be heard on audiologs berating a subordinate for preventing a woman from being assaulted and/or raped and letting botulism contaminated food be distributed to the civilian population. Heller spares his life because he overhears Rooks talking to his daughter. He does shoot his own men to let Heller get his daughter, but it's not clear whether it's a HeelFace Turn or he just wants Heller to take Maya and stop interfering with his plans.

Kill and Replace: Heller is enthusiastically aware of this in the following quips:

Heller talking to Guerra: Think I'll just bodysnatch some poor sucka and steal his seat.

And this one:

Pilot: Catapult, this is Four One. I'll be airborne for the Dana Mercer mission in a couple of Mikes, over.

Heller: No you ain't. In a couple a Mikes, I'm gonna be wearing your face.

Kill It with Fire: Near the endgame, Blackwatch decides to just firebomb Manhattan after the failure of Whitelight.

The Lab Rats: Of which several of them within Gentek are Mercer's contacts.

Dr. Shaffeld: You've ruined everything, you know. Over half of Bellamy's research team — just gone.

APC soldier: Don't worry, Doc. This city's full of lab rats. We'll get you some more.

Kill the Poor: One side mission centers on learning about and destroying Project New Templar, which turns out to be a plot to create a virus that specifically targets the lower classes, "especially immigrants".

Laser Sight: Missile weapons now have a blinking blue laser beam indicating that they are locking on to you which turns solid when they fire at you. This serves as both a way to locate the elusive missile troops and as a warning for you to either dodge or fire up your shield.

The Last of These Is Not Like the Others: When you are trying to figure out which of the five scientist is Roland, you can see that there are four usual scientist model characters with one that is different. Guess which one is Roland?

Also if you run into them, that scientist is the only one you can't push out of the way.

Lovecraftian Superpower: Mercer's lieutenants usually dual-wield cleaver-hand-appendages, but some have more specialized appendages that also serves to reward Heller with new abilities after consuming them.

Made of Plasticine: The way in which Heller rips enemies up and dismembering them makes for quite a gory show.

Magic Genetics: Consume whatever the game tells you to and voila, a new upgrade, power, or something of benefit.

Make Sure He's Dead: As they're part of a tutorial, the first Blackwatch troopers you come across can potentially poke Heller's unmoving body indefinitely ...though it does get boring.

Male Gaze: In the scene where Heller first meets Sabrina Galloway, she bends over to show Heller something on a computer, and we are treated to a gratuitous shot of her "bony ass".

Marathon Boss: One boss (AlexMercer) resets its health with a new set of weapons each time it is defeated in a round.

In an inversion in the same fight, due to a total lack of things to consume, so can Heller, except when fighting Mercer on Insanity mode.

Meaningful Echo: In the opening cutscene, Heller calls his wife to assure her that he'll be home as soon as his current tour of duty is over. Later, he overhears Rooks having a very similar phone conversation with his wife and decides not to kill him.

Metaphorgotten: A soldier describes of what he would do to Heller, stating he would "shove a SAWnote the type of gun, not the cutting tool so far up his ass..." and promptly suffers metaphorical derailment.

Meta Twist: In the first game, Alex's ex-girlfriend, a Gentek employee, turns out to have been a spy for Gentek, and betrays him after pretending to want to help him. In this game, Koenig, a Gentek employee, pretends to want to help and is actually trying to kill Heller. Heller presumably assumes Koenig was manipulating him to save his own skin. Turns out he's actually working for Mercer, and is himself an Evolved Infected like Heller.

Mirror Scare: Rooks, alone, hangs up a phone call only to discover a reflection of Heller in his phone's screen. But just as he turns to look Heller changed into Riley.

The Mole: Alex Mercer's Evolved have infiltrated GENTEK and Blackwatch thoroughly, to the point that many senior scientists and officers are actually Mercer's plants.

It gets to the point that the twelfth or thirteenth time someone you go to consume turns out to be an Evolved, Heller gives a tired sigh and an "ah, shit," and you can tell that he's wondering if there's anyone at Gentek not actually working for Mercer.

Mook Chivalry: Is Heller on the phone? Expect nearby enemies to just linger around until after Heller hangs up.

Compared to the first game, you can now consume minor enemies without getting interrupted.

Muggles Do It Better: Mundane fire arms and vehicles are, once again, the safest, most effective and most boring method of dealing with any given problem, especially once the Mutation that buffs them is unlocked. Tellingly the game doesn't allow a player to hijack helicopters until the final act, so the developers were very much aware of this.

Mysterious Past: Father Guerra is apparently a skilled spymaster and IT hacker, capable of staying ahead of both Gentek and Blackwatch to provide Heller with pertinent data on both. Heller wonders about how he gained such skills, and Guerra remains enigmatic, though he does at one point allude to hacking to government servers in his youth. Given the fact that he's in his late fifties in a contemporary setting...

Neck Lift: The junction by which you decide your grabbed victim's fate.

New Powers as the Plot Demands: When Heller can't break into one of Blackwatch's compounds, he kills a Juggernaut and then uses his Pack Leader ability to command them to destroy the door. He can never use Pack Leader to command Juggernauts except on that particular mission.

Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Heller might've gotten his daughter safely and dealt with Mercer on his own terms or not at all if he had just been a little nicer to Galloway, instead of making it clear that he considered her disposable, refusing to trust her, constantly berating her, and driving her back to Mercer. Of course, Mercer would've sent another Evolved to kidnap Maya, or come himself, and Galloway might've gone to Mercer anyway, but alienating one's intelligence assets is almost always a bad idea.

No-Damage Run: One bonus objective requires you to beat a Goliath without taking any damage from it (the surrounding military forces aren't counted against you, thankfully).

No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Initially seems to be played straight with the "Orion Phase Two" supersoldier; Heller destroys the only one that was produced and also destroyed the main facility producing the Orions, thus preventing any new Phase Twos from being produced. However, later on, Heller has to recover the last samples of DNA from the Phase Two (which is actually his own) to prevent the project from being restarted.

Not Quite Flight: But pretty dang close. The new upgrade to the Glide move in the DLC gives it an extra lift every time it is activated. Making it so you could glide indefinitely.

Not So Different: In one memory, Mercer sends Archer back to infect the few remaining "clean" stocks of Whitelight, despite her protests about the high risk. Heller does the same to Galloway. Heller eats Archer, and Galloway defects to Mercer, who later eats her.

Obviously Evil: One of the Blacknet targets you have to hunt down is sitting on the roof of a skyscraper guarded by three Brawlers. Gee, could this guy be an Evolved?

Off with His Head!: Brawlers, Goliaths, Super Soldiers, and Juggernauts (while using Claws) can suffer this fate when Heller consumes them.

Oh, Crap!: The standard response on just about everyones part when they realize Heller is coming after them, save for the Evolved.

Actually the Bio Bomb Evolved has an Oh, Crap! moment when he spots Heller.

Overdrawn at the Blood Bank: Keep punching somebody, anybody. Watch the amount of blood spill out and subsequently paint the whole floor red.

Papa Wolf: Heller blames Mercer for his daughter's death. Lookout. Even when he does find out she is alive, he still only works in order to save her from Blackwatch and Mercer.

Left Stuck After Attack: Like its predecessor, the game has this via Groundspike. PC slams his hand in the ground, his biomass travels some distance underground and erupts from beneath the surface as sharp, menacing spikes before retracting. The drawback is that it takes a while to perform, and most of the time you are literally rooted up to a place and vulnerable.

Pet the Dog: As a minor gameplay detail: unlike Alex, Heller only uses the more violent consume animations on Blackwatch soldiers and the infected and just quickly "scoops" civilians and marines into his body when he consumes them. He also tends to only punch scientist consume targets only once prior to consuming them, instead of the extended beatdown the soldiers receive.

Even some BlackWatch troops get this in the Audio devices. One has it to where he is getting awarded for his bravery in the field, another has it to where he was talking with a psychiatrist over having to kill people for the first time to protect his friend from a vicious mob, and even one where they stopped a rape in progress.

Playing with Syringes: The GENTEK motto, or it may as well be. One experiment they're running: what happens when you put a dozen or so people in an enclosed area and then drop a Hunter/Brawler in with them. (It turns out the civilians scream, panic, and get torn limb from limb. Important data!)

Politically Incorrect Villain: GENTEK as usual. Special mention goes to Project New Templar, a group of scientists developing a virus to sterilize or kill the poor and immigrants. Heller's so disgusted when they tell him this that he drops the Blackwatch disguise he had on and decides rather than consume them and have them in his head to let them plummet to their deaths.

Power Copying: How Heller obtains his powers. Two of them are acquired by defeating specifically villainous enemies.

Additionally, an upgrade for an existing power is based off a villain who can counter-attack in a similar fashion.

Pragmatic Villainy: Rooks decides to solve the Heller problem by finding Heller's daughter and then giving her to him (while making Heller work for it to cover his bases). Heller himself said he was only trying to get his daughter back so Rooks reasons this will get Heller out of his hair.

Press X to Not Die: Entirely Optional. To even demonstrate that is one of the options stating to cancel (or dismount) it.

Any fight involving a Goliath turns into this; you have to kill it before it can destroy a given target.

Purposely Overpowered: The finishers. The only reasons not to use them are because you want to complete the bonus objective which suggests otherwise, or you just want to toy around with the AI. Justified in that they are not available so early in the game.

Rated M for Manly: James Heller really doesn't take lightly to others giving him shit, and it will show. With you at the controls.

Reality Ensues: Heller may be able shrug off taking a direct hit from a rocket and casually leap off skyscrapers and land unharmed, but attempting to smash apart a bunker full of thermobaric weapons is... unwise.

Red Eyes, Take Warning: Dr. Koenig shoots this right when Heller catches him. First time playing this through a player can't help but have an Oh, Crap! expression when they see this.

Mercer gets these after he consumes his Evolved and is about to fight Heller.

Shooting Superman: One of the upgrades can make Heller bulletproof to all infantry guns. Anything stronger than that still hurts him though. Borders on Too Dumb to Live; the bullets will ricochet and can harm the shooter, and they never stop firing until they kill themselves.

Averted by Rooks: he finds himself face to face with Heller, armed with a measly pistol (he came in expecting a very different conversation). Rooks is clearly itching to pull the trigger, but thinks better of it.

Shoot the Bullet: The "Defend" button prompt, which automatically sends a counter-shot at the projectile being hurled at your vehicle.

One of the achievements is called "Arcade Action" which is awarded by karate kicking a helicopter. Made particularly obvious by the icon for the achievement being a shillouete version of the strip in question.

The trophy/achievement for acquiring five mutations is called "Do the Evolution".

Shows Damage: Vehicles do not show much signs of degradation until a good chunk of hitpoints have been depleted. Otherwise, most destructible objects have a mix of Types 3A and 3B, with some Type 2 for things like critically damaged vehicles.

Sir Swears Alot: Perhaps to his USMC background and his grudge against everyone else that isn't sincerely helping his goals, Heller really expresses himself with Cluster F-Bomb, sometimes to hilarious effect.

Start of Darkness: The Dark Horse Comics tie in mini-series' first part, The Anchor, shows Alex's issues with people turning on each other and betrayal driving him further and further out of touch with humanity. By the end, Alex has decided humanity isn't worth protecting, even from himself...

State Sec: Blackwatch with their own regs and protocols, despite being describe as "elite government troops" in the intro newscast.

The Stoic: Mission Control. Justified, during high-octane operations in the midst of a viral apocalypse, coordination from high command needs to be disseminated in a level-headed tone as much as possible.

It's taken up to eleven later in the game, where Red Crown will be completely flummoxed by the situation on the ground and give out bizarre and generally useless orders in the same bored tone as always. Assuming she doesn't simply tell the troops to "Stand by for orders" as they get slaughtered by giant monsters. This has led fans to speculate that she might be an AI.

Super Drowning Skills: Subverted, as Heller automatically leaps back out of the water towards the nearest land.

Super Soldier: The D-Codes from the first game return, this time as "Orion" supersoldiers, much like the original versions but even faster and tougher. Thankfully, they don't possess an innate virus detector like they did in the first game. Another version, the "Orion Phase Two", is created using Heller's DNA; but Heller kills and eats the first one before they can make more.

Super Strength: From Orion troops to Brawlers, Heller has the strength to match them. The Goliath also has enough muscle power to launch itself into the air with considerable hang-time.

Super Toughness: The huge infected creatures take multiple rockets to dispatch, with the Goliath having massive amounts of flesh to endure punishment. Orion soldiers have about at least a Blackwatch platoon's worth of hitpoints. The Evolved are also just as tough as Heller.

Tactical RockPaperScissors: The final battle with Alex has shades of this: use the wrong kind of weapon on him and it'll just bounce off or do minimal damage, using his current weapon gets you countered automatically, while using the right one ( the one he was just using) tends to stun him more effectively than other weapons. The game gives you a bit of help in this regard when you successfully complete an action command. If you have the right weapon equipped, the prompt over his head will show which one to use. If not, it'll just be an exclamation point.

Take Your Time: Story only progresses via mission acceptance. Meanwhile, feel free to complete the side content to make Heller stronger.

The Project New Templar scientists are also this, since they are not the least bit suspicious that a Blackwatch grunt (actually Heller) knows about their top secret project.

Trailers Always Spoil: Sort of. The early portions of the game have Mercer giving Heller superpowers and telling him Blackwatch is responsible for the infection. However, pretty much all the pre-release marketing had been hyping the battle between Heller and Mercer, and a few trailers even mentioned that Alex was the one who was spreading the virus.

Unblockable Attack: Heller's shields can block most anything, but Hammerfists will get through. The final boss also has special attacks that can break through his defense.

Ungrateful Bastard: Rooks. After you spare his life twice, he kidnaps Heller's missing daughter and calls him out to come face him. Averted as it is later revealed that he did that just so he could induce Heller to leave by giving his daughter back.

Blackwatch mooks that you grab and put down try to shoot you again once they're free, despite begging for their lives half the time.

Unexplained Recovery: A Comic Relief Blackwatch trooper named Starnes appears in multiple Enemy Mine missions, all of which end with the soldiers turning hostile and attacking you (you don't have to kill them, but you probably will). Maybe they're just twins?

Unusually Uninteresting Sight: On Heller's first helicopter trip to the Green Zone, they pass by a roundabout with Brawlers wrecking havoc. The pilot casually comments about how they must have invaded via tunnels from the Red Zone.

Another comments on how Heller's explanation that a previous helicopter pilot (whom he consumed) had his head bitten off by a Brawler "happens a lot around here", and doesn't even bother to question it.

Also on display if you use the Skins in the DLC Pack; since they're Cosmetic, people won't bat an eyelash at Heller even if he's shirtless with tubes and cotton strapped to the front of his chest, a walking slab of metal-looking material or even a ZOMBIE. In fact, it's taken Up to Eleven with the Infected skins, since Heller speaks near-exclusively in hisses, growls and general zombie noises outside of cutscenes, and no one will react any differently if they're talking with him.

Unwitting Pawn: Subverted, as Heller merely messes with Blackwatch (to Mercer's benefit) to uncover the conspiracy, rather than actively furthering Mercer's goals intentionally. By the time Heller's defeated one of Mercer's lieutenants, Heller outright expresses his distrust of Mercer shortly after.

Mercer: Be ready. (takes off)

Heller: (to himself) Lying motherfucker.

Urban Segregation: The game features three distinct zones within Manhattan: Green, Yellow, and Red.

Videogame Caring Potential: If you pick up civilians or soldiers, you can put them down again without hurting them, meaning you could potentially pull an unfortunate victim out of harm's way. In-game, there's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it message telling you that pressing down with the d-pad lets you gently put the person down, to the hilarious confusion of Blackwatch.

Also, Blackwatch has gathered together civilians in a few areas of the game and put them in cages (presumably to be handed over to GENTEK for experimentation). You can free them by destroying the cage they're in, but you'll get no reward for it. You'll also have to be careful how you destroy it if you don't want to kill anyone inside.

Also if you do this by Blackwatch troops, they will immediately shoot the escapes. Unless this is why you did it.

Heller: (after testing out his blade's tornado attack) Now that's some gratuitous violence right there.

In addition to causing the usual variety of mayhem possible in the first game, you can also grab one of the tainted Whitelight barrels found in military bases, hit them so that they start leaking, grab one and run around with it, causing people to double over, puke blood and turn into the Infected. Infecting enough people fast enough in this manner is also one of the Radnet challenges. There is absolutely no in-character reason to do this. The only possible reason it's an option is so the player can be a gigantic dick.

Warp Whistle: There are helipads in each city that allow you to travel between zones or even between helipads in the same zone, once you've unlocked them. The game calls out doing the latter as "lazy".

What Happened to the Mouse?: Dr. Ragland, despite being last seen looking after a comatose Dana and pretty much the only character in the first game that did not back stab Alex, is not seen, heard, or even mentioned.

Where It All Began: Two variants: Penn station is where Alex Mercer began the first outbreak, and it's where he begins the second as well. The final battle between Heller and Mercer also goes down on the Station's roof.

Why Am I Ticking?: A body-horrific variation called the Bio-Bomb, where Heller sneaks up behind people and implants some sort of parasitic infection inside them that will cause them to scream in agony, fall to their knees, and then explode into tendrils, with all applicable gore and destruction. Or you can toss them like grenades. Really, it just depends on how much you want them and others to suffer. Also with the DLC for preordering, you can even punt them like a football.

Wrestler in All of Us: Be it consuming an important victim or just using a large foe's weight against him/it. For the most obvious expression of this trope, see the entry Suplex Finisher.

You Fight Like a Cow: Plenty, both from Heller and foes that could attempt to match him in melee combat.

Zombie Apocalypse: Or viral mutant apocalypse that, as one Gentek memory puts it, has the infected hunger for people. The Mercer Virus zombies are essentially the Walkers from the first game, now with a more zombie-like gait.

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